Section One:
Learning Theories
Various learning theories are nested within my lessons, particularly in Drama and Dance subjects where both theoretical and practical aspects are embedded within one lesson. Firstly, Pavlov, Skinner and Thorndyke’s Behaviourist theory will be discussed (Fairclough 2008). Thorndyke’s experiment on animals (Avis et al, 2010) to encourage ‘learned’ behaviour was through a process of trial and error, rewarding animas with food if they were successful in their task. This taught them to purposefully behaviour in a certain way towards reaching successful goals and effectively being rewarded. Learners are systematically rewarded for aspiring behaviour using the Creating Futures policy within school. Learners receive a creating futures report each term which identifies whether they are outstanding, motivated, coasting or unacceptable in each of their subjects through an attitude matrix. At the end of this report they receive a score, for example, 2.92; above 3 is the score that is high recognised and rewarded with high quality trips, non-uniform days and school discos. This seems to be a successful strategy to encourage ‘learned’ behaviours within school. Learners in lesson often ask what attitude they are working at and how can they achieve that all important outstanding attitude in order to receive a reward. Reinforcement is used through positive language, explaining each lesson what a motivated and outstanding learner looks like; verbal praise and feedback on work and attitudes is given continuously within a lesson. Subsequently behaviourism has received opposing attention for being un-humane and un-ethical. Avis et al, (2010) stated behaviourism is morally deficient in that human beings are treated a...
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...2001). Inside the Black Box: Rising Standards Through Classroom Assessment. London: King’s College London School of Education.
Brookfield, Stephen, D. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Brookbank, A and McGill, I. (2007). Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher Education. Maidenhead: Open University press.
Fairclough, M. (2008). Supporting Learners in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Maidenhead: Open University press.
Knight, Pt. (2003). Assessment, Learning and Employability. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Loughran, J. (2010). What Expert Teachers Do. New York: Routledge.
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Ofsted Report. (2011). Manchester. [Accessed Online 25th January 2014]
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/107766
Rowe, K. (2000). Assessment, League Tables and School Effectiveness: Consider the Issues and “Let’s Get Real”!. Journal of Educational Enquiry, 1(1), 73-98.
Current educational policy and practice asserts that increased standardized student testing is the key to improving student learning and is the most appropriate means for holding individual schools and teachers accountable for student learning. Instead, it has become a tool solely for summarizing what students have learned and for ranking students and schools. The problem is standardized tests cannot provide the information about student achievement that teachers and students need day-to-day. Classroom assessment can provide this kind of information.
Reece & Walker states the behaviourism is teacher centred and relies upon the expectation of the provision of a stimulus to produce a response however, ‘students are often seen as passive’. Therefore, without a stimulus there would be no response and is only visible externally. The teacher provides the stimulus for a response to occur, resulting in a change of behaviour that can be measured.
Assessment has been the greatest challenge in my development as a professional. My coursework as supported my growth in this area, especially in understanding the broad range of assessments used to support students’ growth and development. My courses have also supported my understanding of how ongoing observational assessment and standards-based measures can be used to inform instruction and support the cycle of observation, reflection and planning. Coursework
Popham, W. James. “Standardized Achievement Tests: Misnamed and Misleading.” Education Week. September 2001. Web. 28 June 2015.
student. In the following journal, we see the benefit of reflective practice and what it achieves
I will explain the psychology of learning and the theories I use in my practice. Analysing these theories and teaching methods will give rise, to investigating how these will help in teaching and learning ‘In a nutshell, a principle is a value, belief or ethic relating to something you do and the theory is that which explains why it works’.(Wilson 2009:350) In delivering of a lessons, educator must keep in mind SMARTER objectives.
Solley, B. A. (2012). On Standardized Testing: An ACEI Position Paper. Childhood Education, 84(1), 31-37. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2007.10522967
In this paper I will be discussing the information I have learned from the article “From Positive Reinforcement to Positive Behaviors”, by Ellen A. Sigler and Shirley Aamidor. The authors stress the importance of positive reinforcement. The belief is that teachers and adults should be rewarding appropriate behaviors and ignoring the inappropriate ones. The authors’ beliefs are expressed by answering the following questions: Why use positive reinforcement?, Are we judging children’s behaviors?, Why do children behave in a certain way?, Do we teach children what to feel?, Does positive reinforcement really work?, and How does positive reinforcement work?. The following work is a summary of "Positive Reinforcement to Positive Behaviors" with my thoughts and reflection of the work in the end.
In the past, assessments were popularly conducted for the purpose of accreditation, but with the growing change in the quality of education, it has become evident that assessments aren’t just products to qualification but as Sieborger (1998) identifies, is that assessment is the process of gathering and interpreting knowledge to make valid and justifiable judgements about the learners performance and the assessors ability to transfer and establish knowledge to the learners.
Assessment is the systematic process of collecting data to provide insight into students’ learning experiences. Through assessment, educators can provide invaluable feedback to students, parents/carers, the wider community, government and school officials. Moreover, assessment can be a powerful tool for learning that can direct students’ learning experiences throughout their education and beyond (Readman & Allen, 2013). Assessment can be broadly divided into two categories: summative and formative. More recently, the concept of assessment has expanded to include the following types of assessment: assessment for learning, assessment of learning, and assessment as learning.
Black, P., Wiliam, D. (1998) Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment. London: King's College.
Personal examples of a behaviorist style of instruction are based on the widely renowned theory by B.F. Skinner, which in the classroom can be summarized by reinf...
The subjectivity Whittaker mentions could indicate why the pass mark for the 2016 SAT’s scores was not to the expected standards. Similarly, director of assessment research, Oates, identified that the current assessment situation was ‘extremely problematic’, however the real issue was not with pupils being subjected to too much testing, or the content of the assessments, rather how the results were used
This essay will consist of a discussion on behaviour theories and how behaviour has a connection to learning. Behaviourism has three main theories namely, classical conditioning, operate conditioning and observational conditioning, furthermore learning occurs after the behaviour has taken place. Behaviourism emphasizes on the role of environmental factors which results in influencing the behaviour. This essentially results to focusing on learning, as we learn and experiment, this causes an alteration in the way the environment is perceived, also in the way we interpret the incoming stimuli, and therefore how we choose to interact, or behave. Learning may be learned through classical or operant conditioning.